


The Cuckoo's Child

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 21:33:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naomi was a restless child...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cuckoo's Child

The Cuckoo's Child

by Bluewolf

Naomi was, in general, a fretful child. Her mother soon learned that the only time her baby daughter was quiet, relaxed, was when she was in her baby buggy being taken somewhere, even if it was only for a walk around the garden. Even when it rained - as it so often did - and Esther Sandburg was unwilling to leave the house, Naomi would cry and cry until she was taken out.

Other babies might scream when they were being taken up and down the aisles of a supermarket; not Naomi. As long as she was moving, she was quiet. The only time she became fractious was when Esther was waiting at the check-out.

As soon as she was old enough to walk, she demanded to be allowed into the garden, where she would explore everything, seemingly not caring that she had explored it all before, and more than once.

She was given her first bike when she was three, and although she was still restricted to the garden, she pedalled up and down, content to be moving.

School was torture for the restless Naomi. The concept of sitting still, staying in one place for more than ten minutes seemed to be beyond her, as Esther explained to one teacher after another; and she could only sit relatively still for as long as ten minutes while she was eating. Even that was only because Naomi had realized that it wasn't a good idea to try to move about while she was eating, unless it was a sandwich.

She was an intelligent child, her grades were good, but she had no desire to pursue an academic life; eleven years of having to sit still while she studied was enough, and she left school the moment she was old enough.

Her parents had long realized that Naomi would never be able to hold down a job; she was too restless. Fortunately they were rich enough that she wouldn't have to work; she was their only child and would inherit quite a lot of money when they died. Esther did, however, try to teach her thrift, quickly discovering that she was not in any way tempted to waste money. If she had money, she could travel. Wasting money might mean that one day she might have to stop travelling and - horror of horrors - settle in one place. She did realize that one day she would have to settle down, that one day she would be too old and frail to continue travelling, but she had no intention of allowing that day to arrive before it absolutely must.

And so, when Naomi left school and admitted that she wanted to see more of the world than the city where she was born and grew up, her parents gave her a reasonable allowance and their blessing, making a virtue out of necessity.

Rather than waste money on buses, trains or planes she often hitch-hiked, only realizing the danger in that when one driver who picked her up stopped in a secluded spot, raped her and drove off, leaving her there. It took her several hours to walk to the nearest town.

Upset, determined it wouldn't happen again, she invested in a second-hand bicycle and for some weeks pedalled her way steadily around Texas... until the day she realized she was pregnant.

She went back to her Fort Worth home, told her parents what had happened and that she really had learned a hard lesson.

They were horrified, but supportive; though when she told them she was considering an abortion, both reacted totally negatively.

"No!" Esther said. "Even if what you do is leave the baby with us while you go off on your travels again, you're not having an abortion!"

Her father agreed.

Naomi spent her days for the next three months cycling around the neighborhood, resigned to revisiting places she already knew well, until one day when - despite a forecast of continuing sunshine - she was caught in a bad storm and arrived home soaked and chilled to the bone.

"You'd be better with a car," Taddeo Sandburg said after Naomi had been fussed over, dried and warmed up by her mother. "I'll teach you to drive - you can sit your test after the baby is born. Four months should give you plenty of practice."

Cycling cost nothing. With a car she'd need to buy gas, have the vehicle insured, serviced... she wouldn't be able to save as much of her allowance as she'd been doing. But with a car she'd be able to move around even when the weather was bad. And she could cover greater distances in a day than was possible on a bicycle...

"Thanks, Dad," she said.

***

Until the child was born, Naomi had seriously intended to leave him - or her - with her parents, but when her new-born son was put into her arms she discovered that she did actually have a maternal instinct; she didn't want to - well, lose him, though she had no intention of settling down permanently. So she stayed at home for the first year after Blair was born, although she did spend time driving around, with Blair strapped into a baby seat. Esther often accompanied her in those days, and Naomi found herself unexpectedly content. It seemed that she had the best of both worlds - the semi-settled life that she had to admit gave Blair... well, needed security, but was also introducing him to her world of travel.

She should have known it was too good to last.

When Blair was fifteen months old, her father had a severe stroke, and although he was rushed to hospital he died within an hour of arriving, despite everything the medical staff could do. Two days after his funeral, her mother also died, apparently of a broken heart.

As she prepared to sell the house - she had decided to return immediately to her peripatetic life - she was surprised when one of her cousins, a man some six years older that she was, offered her the market value for it. It saved her time and trouble, and she willingly agreed, throwing in the furniture as well. "Any of it you don't want or need, just sell," she said.

Thomas nodded agreement, while saying, "I doubt I'll want to. And you know you're always welcome to visit, any time you want."

She smiled a little tremulously. "I know," she said, "but it probably won't be for a while. I... This is going to sound terrible, but I really didn't realize I'd miss Mom and Dad so much, you know? Three years ago, I... I found it so easy to leave. I knew they'd die one day, and I thought it would be as easy to say goodbye permanently, but it isn't."

Thomas nodded sympathetically. "I know," he said, "especially since they died so close together. But remember this, Naomi - by coming home again, even though it was because you were pregnant, and staying, even though it was just going to be until Blair was old enough for you to take him away, you made them both very happy."

She sighed. "Yes," she said. "I do know that... and sometimes I wish I didn't have this... this restless streak in me, this need to keep moving... "

"It's something you inherited. Your father had it too, though he was happy to settle down once he met your mother. I have it - that's why I'm a long distance trucker. My wife understands, but I do want to - well, reassure her that I'll always come home, which is why I'm investing in the house. And Naomi - I've spoken to Marta about it, and she agrees. We'll be happy to look after Blair at any time. He'll need to go to school, obviously, and he can come here for that."

"You're sure Marta won't mind?"

"Speak to her yourself," Thomas suggested. "I'll stay out of the way so you'll know I'm not influencing her."

Naomi shook her head. "I'll take your word for it," she said, "and I'll remember."

***

She had travelled over much of America during the year before she was raped, and felt she knew it reasonably well; now, she decided, she would travel abroad. She investigated plane fares, decided that going standby was probably the cheapest way, and headed for Europe.

She hadn't considered that there might be a language problem, but she quickly discovered that she had a gift for picking up at least a working knowledge of any language within a few days. Of course, it helped that she had a young child; seeing him, people tended to use simple language to speak to him. He, too, picked up a working knowledge of several languages and by the time he was five was as fluent as it was possible for a five-year-old to be in two or three of them.

As Blair neared his sixth birthday, however, Naomi knew that she had to return to America, let him go to school. Flying back - on standby, obviously - she reached Fort Worth in the early hours of the morning; spent the rest of the night in one of the waiting rooms, then - knowing it would be cheaper in the long run - hired a small car for a week, then drove to the house she had once called 'home'.

Thomas wasn't there - he had left two days previously to take a load of something - Marta wasn't sure what - to somewhere in Oregon - but Marta greeted her cheerfully, introduced her to her two-year-old cousin once removed, Robert, listened as Naomi explained that Blair was now of an age to go to school, and confirmed what Thomas had said when he bought the house. They were happy to take charge of Blair, and asked only that she contact them at least once a month to be updated on his progress and so that they would have at least some idea of where to contact her should any unforeseen problems arise.

Naomi agreed cheerfully.

She stayed until Thomas returned, then next day headed off again, after promising Blair that yes, she would come back to see him, but she was sure he would like going to school (she had discovered that he loved stories, and had somehow, through looking at books as she read to him, taught himself to read).

It wasn't quite as easy to leave him as it had been to leave her parents when she had first headed off on her travels, but she was aware that now she had no responsibilities; she could go where the wind took her. All she had to remember was to phone Marta on the first of each month - if she was somewhere that had phones... No, she had promised; she would have to make sure that on or just before the first of every month she was somewhere that had phones.

***

Much to her surprise, inside two months she learned that Blair had not inherited her wanderlust - or if he had, he controlled it, young though he was. He was happy in school, absorbing his lessons, happy enough to play with his fellow pupils but equally happy to spend his evenings reading. And so it continued. When he was ten, she began to take him with her for the summer holidays, letting him see more of the world, finding that although he enjoyed the time with her, he was perfectly content to return to Fort Worth and school a day or two before the new school year began.

When he was sixteen he was accepted by Rainier University. For the first two years he continued to join her for the summer (though for the other breaks he returned to Fort Worth) but when he turned eighteen he chose instead to go on short University-arranged expeditions in the summer. She consoled herself with the reflection that he was still seeing new places...

Although...

She still loved to travel; but in Nepal she had discovered, in a Buddhist monastery, a settled way of life that she found appealed to her. She discovered that she could spend time in those retreats and be content... at least for a while; though eventually the wanderlust became too strong to resist and she moved on for a while. Away from the monastery that she revisited at least three times a year, meditation calmed her restless spirit... a little, enough to let her stay in one place for two or three days, before the need to move again became imperative.

And then she discovered that Blair was working with, living with, a cop.

She had hoped that one day, when he finally got all the letters after his name that he wanted, he would be happy to travel with her again, learning about the world through seeing it, rather than reading about it; his attachment to Jim was tying him down.

For three years she tried to persuade Blair that he was making a mistake, that tying himself down like that would only result in unhappiness. The settled life was not for Sandburgs; hadn't he seen how happy she was, travelling, how happy his Uncle Thomas was with his long-distance trucking, how happy his cousin Robert was moving from town to town, never staying for long in any one place?

Blair had simply shaken his head and insisted that he was happy where he was.

And then, it seemed, an opportunity arose that would surely free Blair... she found herself with access to his finished dissertation and he although he claimed it needed more work done to it, she was sure that it didn't - and she knew how to prove that. She sent it to a publisher friend.

She was totally unprepared for the fallout... and yet it couldn't have suited her purpose better. Surely, surely Blair would realize his best course of action would be to leave Cascade, join her, and begin to travel the world... find the satisfaction she had always known in continually seeing new places.

Instead, he indicated that he wanted to stay in Cascade, would be happy to accept the detective's shield that had been offered him.

Had he taken that wish for a settled life from his unknown father? It was certainly no part of the Sandburg genetic inheritance. He was a cuckoo in the Sandburg nest...

No, she didn't understand Blair... and for the first time in her life, she realized that he didn't understand her, her need to soar free.

And so she hid her unease, her disappointment, wished him well, and left Cascade, sad that he had made a choice that meant he would never know the joy of seeing new places... and spread her own wings, heading for the airport from where she would travel to... wherever the first plane that had standby tickets took her.


End file.
